Now in its fourth successful year, a group of organizations, which includes publishers, learned societies and universities, is once again working collaboratively to plan a week of activities and events to strengthen and celebrate peer review. The theme of Peer Review Week 2018 is “Diversity and Inclusion” and aims to explore a wide range of issues and challenges that this topic presents within peer review. It will run from 10 – 15 September 2018 with activities taking place around the globe.

In line with our theme, we want to celebrate the diversity of those working in peer review and encourage a wide range of activities from a broad group of participants in all parts of the world.

We would like to encourage and help anyone who would like to host an event, with our ‘Event in a Box’ option. This will provide you with all you need to:

• Run a workshop
• Host a webinar
• Give a lecture or seminar
• Write and post a blog

More details about ‘Event in a Box’ will be available on our website soon.

During the week, we would like to encourage open debate on what diversity and inclusion in peer review looks like, why it’s important, and how to support it. Areas that we hope to raise awareness of include issues surrounding gender, underrepresented minorities and country bias - both explicit and implicit as well as more profession specific issues such as inclusion of early-career researchers in peer review and the gender gap in authorship. To help create discussion that includes many diverse views on these and other issues, we would like to encourage activities from as many different backgrounds and countries as possible.

“As Research Coordinator for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities I took the initiative to share the idea of Peer Review Week and coordinate a seminar seminar in partnership with our library” says Rania Rafik Khalil, Research Coordinator from The British University in Egypt, who organised a seminar last year. “It was a successful event that raised awareness among academics around the value of peer review on an international level and the many benefits which can reflect on both the academic staff and the university.”

The many international events held last year included:

• Workshop: Peer Review: Nuts & Bolts (University of Tehran, Iran)
• Webinar: What is ReviewerCredits and how can it contribute to transparency in peer review (University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy)
• Workshop: How to be an effective reviewer: Peer reviewing for academic journals with Taylor and Francis. (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Lecture: Why would and should I care about peer review? (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden)

Get involved

If you would like to get involved please send your contributions and ideas to peerreviewweek@outlook.com using the subject line Peer Review Week. Please also let us know if you wish to receive our ‘Event in a Box’ toolkit.

For more information, and to join in with this year’s Peer Review Week activities, visit www.peerreviewweek.org and follow #PeerRevWk18 and #PeerRevDiversityInclusion

2018 PRW Steering Committee
Abigail Jones, Sense About Science
Alice Ellingham, Editorial Office Ltd
Alice Meadows, ORCID
Alison O'Connell, Coko Foundation
Annette Flanagin, JAMA
Bahar Mehmani, Elsevier
Carianne Buurmeijer, FEMS
Caroline Campbell, IGI Global
Eileen Breen, Emerald Publishing
Domiziana Francescon, Elsevier
Elisa De Raneri, Springer Nature
Helen Evans, Emerald Publishing
Jason De Boer, Aries Systems
Jenny Gimpel, BMC
Jessica Rucker, ACS Publications
Kathy Pierce, Elsevier
Katie Baker, SAGE Publishing
Kristen Marchetti, SAGE Publishing
Lindsay Wertman, IGI Global
Mark Robinson, T&F
Meghan McDevitt, ISMTE
Lou Peck, Wiley
Nikesh Gosalia, Editage
Phil Hurst, Royal Society
Raina Khalil, The British University in Egypt
Shane Canning, F1000
Stephanie Monasky, ACS Publications
Susie Winter, Springer Nature
Tom Culley, Publons
Verity Warne, INASP

For further information, please contact:

Alice Ellingham, Director, Editorial Office Ltd
Direct: +44 (0)845 834 0370
Email: alice.ellingham@editorialoffice.co.uk